Gas-engine



C. BRITT.

GAS ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 7. 1917.

1,329,364. Patented Feb. 3,1920.

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C. BRITT.

L GAS ENGINE. APPLICATION FILED NOV. 7. I917- Patented Feb. 3,1920.

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was 376%.

C. BRITT.

GAS ENGINE.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 1 1911.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES BRIT'I, 0F ALGONA, IOWA.

GAS-ENGINE.

App1ication filed November 7, 1917.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES BRITT, a citiconsists in providing an enginestructure in.

which the cylinders are closed at both ends, the space between one endof each cylinder and its piston providing a pie-compression chamber fora fuel charge which is subsequently transferred into the space betweenthe other end of the cylinder and piston, which constitutes the firingchamber, and there exploded, the single piston serving both as a meansfor pro-compressing the charge and as a means for imparting power fromthe exploding charge to the crank shaftof the engine.

A still further object of my invention resides in constructing an enginof this character having an improved system of valves all of the puppettype and all normally held in closed position by springs and all movedat suitable times to open position by means of lift rods controlled bycams upon the crank shaft.

With these and other objects in view, my invention will be more fullydescribed, illustrated in the accompanying drawings and thenspecifically pointed out in the claims which form a part of thisapplication.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side elevation of my improved engine;

Fig. 2 is a central longitudinal vertical sectional view of the engine;

Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 4 4 of Fig. 2looking in the direction of the arrows.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the followingdescription and indicated. in all the views of the drawings by the samereference characters.

Although any number of cylinders may Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 3, 1920.

Serial No. 200,798.

be employed in my improved gas engine construction I have for the sakeof simplicity illustrated merely a two-cylinder engine in which thecylinders 10 and 11 at their lower ends have circumferential attachingflanges so that they may be connected by cap screws 13 to the top of theupper portion lat of the crank case 15. The upper ends or cylinder headspro-per of these cylinders are thickened, as shown at 16, and arepreferably formed integrally with the cylinders. These thickenedportions at one side are cored to provide fuel inlet passages 17 openingradially through the heads and to provide the diametrically opposedexhaust passages 18, also opening radially through the heads. Eachcylinder wall adjacent its lower end and preferably directly below thefuel inlet passage 17 is formed with a mixture outlet passage and at thesame level directly below the exhaust passage 18 with a mixture inletpassage 20.

The upper section 14: of the crank case15 has a closed top which formsin effect the lower cylinder heads of the cylinders and the two casingsections have meeting'flanges 21 to receive bolts 22 by' means of whichthey are secured together. In the line of the abutting faces the casingsections are formed with bearings 22 to journal the crank shaft 23.Operating in each of the cylinders is a piston 24, the piston rod 25.

of which extends through a stufling box, indicated as a whole by thenumeral 26, locatedin the top wall ofthe crank casing. This stufling boxincludes a sleeve 27 which is threaded through the wall of the crankcasing and which at its upper end has an inwardly directed flange 28closely engaging about the piston rod 25. Fitting closely within thissleeve and about therod are alternate spring rings and washers 29, and30.which are clamped together by a'packing nut 31. The lower end of eachpiston rod is laterally enlarged, as shown at 32,130 engage against oneface of flanges 33 which extend toward each other from vertically.

shown in Fig. 3, in such a manner that the thickened portion ofthepiston rod together with the plate 35. provides a cross-head, in-

dicated as a whole by the numeral 38, which operates upon the flanges ofthe guides.

The sections making up this cross-head are recessed so that whenassembled they provide bearings for trunnions 39 at the upper end of aconnecting rod 40 which joins the cross head with the cooperating crankarm 41 of the crank shaft. Of course, the crank arms of the shaft aredisposed in opposition so that when one piston is in fully raisedpositionthe other will be in fully lowered position.

An intake manifold 42 has its trunk portion connected to any suitableform of carbureter l3 and its branches connected to the cylinder wallsabout the mixture inlet ports or passages formed therein. The manifoldsadjacent the ends of their branches are formed with spiders 4:4: tosupport and guide the stems 4:5 of puppet valves 46. These stems projectthrough the wall of the inanifold and have abutment heads 47. Helicalsprings 48 engage these heads and the manifold to normally hold thevalves in closed position. Pivoted at one end to a lug as projectingfrom the crank casing between the lower ends of the cylinders is a leverarm 50 of suitable length so that when swung in one direction it willengage the head of one valve stem to move the valve toopen position,while when swung in the opposite direction it will correspondingly openthe other valve. An arm 51 extends laterally and rigidly form theintermediate portion of this lever and a link 52 has pin and slotconnection for the free end of the arm operatively connecting with theeccentric strap 53 of an eccentric 5&1 carried by the crank shaft Bythis means the valves 46 will be alternately opened, each valve beingopened once during each complete revolution of the crank shaft.

it transfer conduit 55 leads from the mixture outlet port of eachcylinder to the inlet port 17 of the same cylinder, as best shown inrigs-1 and 2. Each conduit adjacent that end leading from the port 19 isformed with a spider 56 supporting the valve stem 57 of a puppet valve58. A bell-crank lever 59 pivoted upon a lug 60 extending from thecasing has one arm connected by pin and slot connection with the freeend of the valve stem 57 a helical spring 61 serving to normally holdthe valve 58 closed. Valve stems 62 reciprocally mounted in the cylinderheads carry valves 63 for closing the mixture inlet passages 17 and attheir outer ends are operatively connected to one arm of the levers (ipivoted upon brackets 65 carried by the cylinder heads, springs 66serving to normally hold the valves 63 closed. A lift rod 67 isreciprocally mounted in the top of thefc'ylinder casing in 'alinementwith the levers 5 9 and 64 and has operative connection with sachet thelevers, two lift rods being provided, onefor each cylinder. The lowerends of the lift rods are forked to journal rollers 68 which engageagainst cams 69 carried by the crank shaft.

Valve stems 70 corresponding to the valve stems 62 carry valves 71 whichnormally close the exhaust ports or passages 18 in the cylinder headsand are operatively connected to levers 72' pivoted upon brackets 7 3,these valves being held in closed position by springs 7 4-. Lift rods 75are operatively connected to the levers 72, reciprocally supported inthe top of the crank casing and at their lower endsare forked to journalrollers 7 6 engaging against cams 77 mounted upon the crank shaft. Anexhaust manifold 78 has branches 7 9 which communicate with the exhaustpassages 18, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The cylinder heads are, ofcourse, cored, as shown at 80, to receive spark plugs 81 by means ofwhich the compressed charges may be fired.

In describing the operation of my improved internal combustion engine Iwill assume that there is a compressed charge of explosive mixture inthe lower end of the cylinder 10 which is being introduced into theupper end of the cylinder past the valve 58, through the conduit 55 andpast thevalve 63, an exploded charge having been previously exhaustedpast the valve 71. In this connection it should be noted that the cams69 and 77 are so timed that at the proper point in the downward movementof the piston the valve 71 is opened while at the bottom of the strokeof the piston the valve 71 is closed and the valves 58 and 63 areopened. 1 will also assume that there is a compressed charge ofexplosive gas above the piston in the cylinder 11 and that a charge ofexplosive is being drawn into the lower end of the cylinder 11 past thevalve 46, the remaining valves of the cylinder 11 being closed. Underthese conditions firing of the charge above the piston in the cylinder11 will cause downward movement of such piston and upward movement ofthe other piston. As this movement starts, the valve &6 of the cylinder'11 will be closed so that the gas drawn into the lower end of suchcylinder will be compressed while the valve 46 of the cylinder 10 willbe opened so that an explosive mixture may be drawn into the cylinder10. Furthermore the valves 58 and 63 of the cylinder 10 will be closed.Immediately before the pis tons reach the position reverseto that shownin Fig. 2 the valves 46 and 63 of the cylinder 11 will be open so thatwhen the pistons have reached dead center the valves will all'be in aposition reverse to that shown in Fig. 2. This constitutes a completecycle of operation of my improved engine, a charge being fired in eachcylinder for each complete rotation of the crank shaft. Obviously, uponfurther turning of the crank shaft the piston and valves of the cylinder10 will operate in the manner above described for cylinder 11,

while the piston and valves of the cylinder 11 will operate in themanner above described for cylinder 10. For this reason no furtherexplanation is necessary.

Attention is directed to the extreme simplicity of the valve controllingmechanism in that a single link or lift rod controls the mixture inletvalves for both cylinders, while for each cylinder a single lift rodcontrols both the valve permitting passageof mixture from beneath thepiston and the valve controlling the admission of mixture to thecylinder above the piston.

It will, of course, be appreciated that various structural changes maybe made and I, therefore, reserve the right to make any changes withinthe scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

1. In a gas engine, a pair of cylinders closed at both ends, pistonsoperating in the cylinders and providing at one side pre-compressionchambers and at the opposite side firing chambers, means for ventingburnt gases from the firing chambers, means for transferring anexplosive mixture from the pre-compression chambers to the firingchambers, means for admitting an explosive mixture to thepro-compression chambers, said latter means including a valve for eachcylinder, a lever pivoted for swinging movement to engage at its freeend with either valve to force it to open position, a crank shaft, aneccentric mounted upon the crank shaft, and operative connection between the eccentric and lever whereby turning of the crank shaft willshift the lever to first engage at its free end with one and then theother valve for selectively opening said valves.

2. In a gas engine, a cylinder closed at both ends, a piston mounted toreciprocate within the cylinder, a crank-shaft having pipe establishingcommunication between opposite ends of the cylinder at opposite sides ofthe piston, an intake valve at one end of the cylinder, an exhaust valveat the opposite end of the cylinder, reciprocable transfer 'valves atopposite ends of said pipe, one of said valves being disposed in a planeat right angles to the other, a lift rod operable from the crank shaft,and an operative connection between the lift rod and the transfer valvesfor simultaneously actuating said transfer valves.

3. In a gas engine, a cylinder closed at both ends, a piston mounted toreciprocate within the cylinder, a crank shaft having the pistonconnected therewith, a transfer pipe establishing communication betweenopposite ends of the cylinder at opposite sides of the piston, an intakevalve at one end ofthe cylinder, an exhaust valve at the opposite end ofthe cylinder, reciprocable transfer valves at opposite ends of saidpipe, a lift rod operable from the crank shaft, a rocker arm engagedwith the lift rod for actuating one of said transfer valves, and a bellcrank lever engaged with the lift rod for simultaneously actuating theother of the transfer valves.

4-. In a gas engine, a pair of cylinders, pistons mounted to reciprocatetherein, means establishing communication between opposite ends of eachcylinder at opposite sides of its piston, means controlling suchcommunication, exhaust valves at corresponding ends of'the cylinders,oppositely disposed intake valves at the other corresponding ends of thecylinders, a crank case, a lever pivoted thereon in a plane between theouter ends of the intake valves, and means for swinging said lever toalternately engage and openthe intake valves.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

CHARLES BRITT. [1 s.]

